Nocturne Aeronautique
Nocturne Aeronautique is the seventh short story which appeared in the anthology , published in May 1950. The story was later reprinted in Open-Air Adventure Stories for Girls in 1965. The events in the story take place at an R.A.F. fighter station and in northern France during the early part of the Second World War. Synopsis Flying Officer Brian Gray chases a German raider in marginal weather and ends up over northern France at nightfall. He is surprised to see a light on the ground flashing the English word "help" and decides to land. Plot (may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Flying Officer Brian Gray chases a German raider in marginal weather and ends up over northern France at nightfall. Turning for home, he is surprised to see a light on the ground flashing the English word "help". The signal was in English, and seems a little too obvious to be a trick. So he decides to have a second look and then the light changes to "OK" and beckons him to land. Coming out of his Hawker Hurricane, he meets an American woman, Helen Cardell, who tells him she had been driving an ambulance and had been caught in the rout. Although America was not yet in the war, she had been caught by German soldiers for running a hiding place for British soldiers but had somehow escaped. She had been hiding in the farm house but German soldiers were going to be billeted there so she had to get away again. She tries to persuade Brian to give her a lift to England in his Hurricane. He is at first reluctant because it is against regulations but she asks him th "Be a pal" and is further motivated by approaching shouts and gunshots. So he bundles Helen onto his lap and takes off. Brian gets back to his fighter station but crashes the aircraft on landing. His C.O., Wing Commander Clinton, asks what had happened and Brian confesses that he had been flying with a girl on his lap. He turns to look for her but she is nowhere to be found. Clinton doesn't believe his story and has Brian placed under close arrest. The next day, Brian is brought before Clinton to hear some astonishing news. Helen Cardell had apparently confronted Clinton. She can't believe that Brian should be arrested for crashing a Hurricane. She would gladly pay for one, or maybe, even for a whole squadron of them. Saying thus, she had promptly written a cheque for sixty thousand pounds. It seemed that Helen was a wealthy woman. She had, in fact, paid for and equipped an ambulance unit in France. Not knowing what to do, Clinton had referred the matter to the Air Ministry which had decided that it could not accept the donation without a reciprocal gesture of gratitude and thus it had ordered Brian to be released from arrest. Nonetheless the authorities had to show its disapproval of his action of picking up an unauthorized passenger so it had decided that Brian was to be posted immediately to America where he was to undertake acceptance tests of aircraft being produced for the R.A.F. by the Automotive Tractions Inc. Outside Clinton's office, Brian meets Helen who thanks him for rescuing her. Brian, in turn thanks her for helping him out. He tells her he is to depart for America immediately. Helen compares notes and she tells him she is also departing for America on the same plane. A coincidence? Not quite. It turns out that Helen's father runs Automotive Tractions and is looking forward to meeting him! Characters *Flying Officer Brian Gray *Helen Cardell *Wing Commander Clinton Aircraft *Hawker Hurricane Ships Places Visited Research Notes *In the Open-Air Adventures version of the story, some sentences were removed, presumably to make the text more suited for a younger audience. For example, in one section when Brian was taking off with Helen, the aerodynamic forces crushed Helen's face against Brian's. Brian says sorry and Helen tells him to forget it. The original version has Brian's response: "I wish I could." This is omitted in the Open-Air Adventures'' version. Publication History References Category:Short stories Category:Other short stories Category:Adult short stories